The Trail Went Cold - Episode 17 - The Lady of the Dunes

July 26, 1974. The nude decomposed body of a young woman is discovered at the Race Point Dunes outside of Provincetown, Massachusetts. The woman has been murdered via blunt force trauma to the head, but carries no identification. In spite of an extensive investigation, police are unable to uncover the identity of the victim or her killer, so she simply becomes known as the “Lady of the Dunes”. Over the years, there are a number of intriguing leads in the case, including a potential connection to a notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and an alleged sighting of the victim in one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of all time. Join me for this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” as I try to figure out the true identity of the “Lady of the Dunes”

As a bonus, this episode will also contain a review of the true crime book, “The Blood on My Hands”, an autobiography written by Shannon O’Leary, which is available for purchase at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-My-Hands-Autobiography/dp/151969587X

Also, please check out the Doe Network profile page for the “Lady of the Dunes”, which contains facial reconstructions for the victim, her vital statistics, and contact info for the proper authorities should you happen to know who she is: http://doenetwork.org/cases/119ufma.html

Additional Reading:

http://www.masslive.com/bostonspirit/2014/10/whitey_bulger_gays_and_the_lad.html

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2014/07/23/40-years-later-provincetowns-lady-of-the-dunes-remains-a-mystery

“The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes” by Michael Newton

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.